A federal appeals court is weighing whether the University of Illinois should be forced to release information about applicants who got preferential treatment through a now-defunct secret admissions system.

The dispute, pending before the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, stems from the Tribune’s 2009 “Clout Goes to College” series, which exposed the separate admissions track for well-connected applicants. The argument is over whether a federal law — the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, also known as FERPA — prevents the university from releasing the information.